Radiographic periodontal attachment loss as an indicator of death risk in the elderly

Objectives: Oral infections have been associated with serious systemic dise ases and an increased risk of death. Our aims were to investigate whether r adiographically-observed apical periodontitis lesions, carious teeth, perio dontal attachment loss (horizontal bone loss, furcation lesions, number of teeth with infrabony periodontal pockets, the extent of infrabony periodont al pockets) and the sum of all these findings have any relationships with a ll-cause mortality within 4-year followup. Material and methods: 292 community-dwelling elderly persons aged 76, 81 an d 86 years. The number of deaths within 4 years was 54 (18.5%). In the dent ate 169 subjects, of whom 32 (18.9%) deceased within 4 years, the mean numb er of teeth was 15.5 in men and 13.2 in women. The imaging method used was panoramic radiography supplemented by intraoral radiographs. Results: 51% of the dentate subjects had infrabony pockets (mean 1.5, s.d. 2.2), and 40% had periapical periodontitis lesions (mean 1.0, s.d. 1.6). Af ter controlling for age and gender, vertical bone loss judged as advanced i nfrabony pockets was associated with 4-year all-cause mortality (Odds ratio 2.2,1.0-4.7). Other associations were statistically insignificant. Conclusion: Periodontal attachment loss may indicate an increased risk of d eath in the elderly.